Antiferromagnetic to Ferrimagnetic Phase Transition and Possible Phase Coexistence in Polar Magnets (Fe1- xMnx)2Mo3O8 (0 ≤ x ≤ 1)

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2023 May 10;15(18):22204-22211. doi: 10.1021/acsami.3c00518. Epub 2023 May 1.

Abstract

In the present work, the magnetic properties of a single crystal (Fe1-xMnx)2Mo3O8 (0 ≤ x ≤ 1) have been studied by performing extensive measurements. A detailed magnetic phase diagram is built up, in which the antiferromagnetic state dominates for x ≤ 0.25 and the ferrimagnetic phase arises for x ≥ 0.3. Meanwhile, a sizeable electric polarization of spin origin is commonly observed in all samples, no matter what the magnetic state is. For the samples hosting a ferrimagnetic state, square-like magnetic hysteresis loops are revealed, while the remnant magnetization and coercive field can be tuned drastically by simply varying the Mn content or temperature. A possible coexistence of the antiferromagnetic and ferrimagnetic phases is proposed to be responsible for the remarkable modulation of magnetic properties in the samples.

Keywords: antiferromagnetic; ferrimagnetic; magnetoelectric effect; phase transition; polar magnet.